The 8 Stages of Genocide

By Gregory H. Stanton[i]

The International Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
defines "genocide."

"In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to
destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical
destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."

Acts of genocide

During the Rwandan genocide, the U.S. State Department’s lawyers infamously directed U.S.
diplomats to avoid use of the word genocide. Only “acts of genocide” were being committed,
they said. It was a distinction without a difference.

The crime of genocide is defined by the Genocide Convention as "acts of genocide." It does not
exist apart from those acts. A pattern of acts of genocide is frequently called "genocide" and
evidence of such a pattern of ethnic, racial, or religious massacres is strong evidence of
genocidal intent.

The Convention declares the following acts punishable:

"(a) Genocide;
(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
(d) Attempt to commit genocide;
(e) Complicity in genocide."

The Genocide Convention is sometimes misinterpreted as requiring the intent to destroy in

whole a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Some genocides have fit that description,
notably the Holocaust and Rwanda. But most do not. Most are intended to destroy only part of a
group. The Genocide Convention specifically includes the intentional killing of part of a group
as genocide. It reaffirms this definition when it includes as among the acts that constitute
genocide "deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its
physical destruction in whole or in part'. Those who shrink from applying the term "genocide"
usually ignore the "in part".

Intent
Intent can be directly proven from statements or orders by the perpetrators. But more often, it
must be deduced from the systematic pattern of their acts, a pattern that could only arise out of
specific intent.

Criminal law distinguishes intent from motive. A murderer may have many motives -- gaining
property or eliminating a rival for power. But his intent is determined by the purpose of his act:
Did he purposely kill the victim? Genocidal intent is determined by the specific purpose of the
act: Did the killer purposely kill the victim as part of a plan to destroy a national, ethnic, racial,
or religious group, at least in part?

The motive of the killer to take the victim's property or to politically dominate the victim's group
does not remove genocidal intent if the victim is chosen because of his ethnic, national, racial, or
religious group.

A plan for genocide doesn’t need to be written out. An act of genocide may arise in a culture that
considers members of another group less than human, where killing members of that group is not
considered murder. This is the culture of impunity characteristic of genocidal societies. In
Burundi, Tutsis who kill Hutus have seldom been convicted or even arrested. Massacres are
ethnic, intended to destroy parts of the other ethnic group.

Leo Kuper calls such mass killings genocidal massacres. They are acts of genocide even if only
a part of a group (the intellectuals, officers, leaders) is targeted.

THE GENOCIDAL PROCESS

Prevention of genocide requires a structural understanding of the genocidal process. Genocide

has eight stages or operational processes. The first stages precede later stages, but continue to
operate throughout the genocidal process. Each stage reinforces the others. A strategy to prevent
genocide should attack each stage, each process. The eight stages of genocide are classification,
symbolization, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, extermination, and
denial.

Classification

All languages and cultures require classification - division of the natural and social world into
categories. We distinguish and classify objects and people. All cultures have categories to
distinguish between “us” and “them,” between members of our group and others. We treat
different categories of people differently. Racial and ethnic classifications may be defined by
absurdly detailed laws -- the Nazi Nuremberg laws, the "one drop" laws of segregation in
America, or apartheid racial classification laws in South Africa. Racist societies often prohibit
mixed categories and outlaw miscegenation. Bipolar societies are the most likely to have
genocide. In Rwanda and Burundi, children are the ethnicity of their father, either Tutsi or Hutu.
No one is mixed. Mixed marriages do not result in mixed children.

Symbolization
We use symbols to name and signify our classifications. We name some people Hutu and others
Tutsi, or Jewish or Gypsy, or Christian or Muslim. Sometimes physical characteristics - skin
color or nose shape - become symbols for classifications. Other symbols, like customary dress or
facial scars, are socially imposed by groups on their own members. After the process has reached
later stages (dehumanization, organization, and polarization) genocidal governments in the
preparation stage often require members of a targeted group to wear an identifying symbol or
distinctive clothing -- e.g. the yellow star. The Khmer Rouge forced people from the Eastern
Zone to wear a blue-checked scarf, marking them for forced relocation and elimination.

Dehumanization

Classification and symbolization are fundamental operations in all cultures. They become steps
of genocide only when combined with dehumanization. Denial of the humanity of others is the
step that permits killing with impunity. The universal human abhorrence of murder of members
of one's own group is overcome by treating the victims as less than human. In incitements to
genocide the target groups are called disgusting animal names - Nazi propaganda called Jews
"rats" or "vermin"; Rwandan Hutu hate radio referred to Tutsis as "cockroaches." The targeted
group is often likened to a “disease”, “microbes”, “infections” or a “cancer” in the body politic.
Bodies of genocide victims are often mutilated to express this denial of humanity. Such atrocities
then become the justification for revenge killings, because they are evidence that the killers must
be monsters, not human beings themselves.

Organization

Genocide is always collective because it derives its impetus from group identification. It is
always organized, often by states but also by militias and hate groups. Planning need not be
elaborate: Hindu mobs may hunt down Sikhs or Muslims, led by local leaders. Methods of
killing need not be complex: Tutsis in Rwanda died from machetes; Muslim Chams in
Cambodia from hoe-blades to the back of the neck ("Bullets must not be wasted," was the rule at
Cambodian extermination prisons, expressing the dehumanization of the victims.) The social
organization of genocide varies by culture. It reached its most mechanized, bureaucratic form in
the Nazi death camps. But it is always organized, whether by the Nazi SS or the Rwandan
Interahamwe. Death squads may be trained for mass murder, as in Rwanda, and then force
everyone to participate, spreading hysteria and overcoming individual resistance. Terrorist
groups will pose one of the greatest threats of genocidal mass murder in the future as they gain
access to chemical, biological, and even nuclear weapons.

Polarization

Genocide proceeds in a downward cycle of killings until, like a whirlpool, it reaches the vortex
of mass murder. Killings by one group may provoke revenge killings by the other. Such
massacres are aimed at polarization, the systematic elimination of moderates who would slow the
cycle. The first to be killed in a genocide are moderates from the killing group who oppose the
extremists: the Hutu Supreme Court Chief Justice and Prime Minister in Rwanda, the Tutsi
Archbishop in Burundi. Extremists target moderate leaders and their families. The center cannot
hold. The most extreme take over, polarizing the conflict until negotiated settlement is
impossible.

Preparation

Preparation for genocide includes identification. Lists of victims are drawn up. Houses are
marked. Maps are made. Individuals are forced to carry ID cards identifying their ethnic or
religious group. Identification greatly speeds the slaughter. In Germany, the identification of
Jews, defined by law, was performed by a methodical bureaucracy. In Rwanda, identity cards
showed each person's ethnicity. In the genocide, Tutsis could then be easily pulled from cars at
roadblocks and murdered. Throwing away the cards did not help, because anyone who could not
prove he was Hutu, was presumed to be Tutsi. Hutu militiamen conducted crude mouth exams to
test claims of Hutu identity.

Preparation also includes expropriation of the property of the victims. It may include
concentration: herding of the victims into ghettos, stadiums, or churches. In its most extreme
form, it even includes construction of extermination camps, as in Nazi-ruled Europe, or
conversion of existing buildings – temples and schools – into extermination centers in
Cambodia. Transportation of the victims to these killing centers is then organized and
bureaucratized.

Extermination

The seventh step, the final solution, is extermination. It is considered extermination, rather than
murder, because the victims are not considered human. They are vermin, rats or cockroaches.
Killing is described by euphemisms of purification: “ethnic cleansing” in Bosnia, “ratonade” (rat
extermination) in Algeria. Targeted members of alien groups are killed, often including children.
Because they are not considered persons, their bodies are mutilated, buried in mass graves or
burnt like garbage.

Denial

Every genocide is followed by denial. The mass graves are dug up and hidden. The historical
records are burned, or closed to historians. Even during the genocide, those committing the
crimes dismiss reports as propaganda. Afterwards such deniers are called “revisionists.” Others
deny through more subtle means: by characterizing the reports as “unconfirmed” or “alleged”
because they do not come from officially approved sources; by minimizing the number killed; by
quarreling about whether the killing fits the legal definition of genocide (“definitionalism”); by
claiming that the deaths of the perpetrating group exceeded that of the victim group, or that the
deaths were the result of civil war, not genocide. In fact, civil war and genocide are not mutually
exclusive. Most genocides occur during wars.

PREVENTION

A full strategy for preventing genocide should include attack on each of genocide's operational
processes.
Classification may be attacked either through devaluation of the distinctive features used to
classify (e.g. amalgamation of regional dialects and accents by exposure to mass media,
standardized education, and promotion of a common language) or through use of transcendent
categories, such as common nationality or common humanity. Promotion of mixed categories,
such as the financial incentives for inter-caste marriages in Tamil Nadu, India, may help break
down group endogamy, but do not combat genocide in bipolar societies where mixed categories
have no recognition. In bipolar societies, transcendent institutions like the Catholic Church
should actively campaign against ethnic classifications. Special effort should be made to keep
such institutions from being captured and divided by the same forces that divide the society, e.g.
through hierarchical discipline from Rome for the Roman Catholic Church.

Symbolization can be attacked by legally forbidding use of hate symbols (e.g. swastikas) or
ethnic classification words. "Nigger" or "kaffir" as racial expletives may be outlawed as "hate
speech." Group marking like tribal scarring may be outlawed, like gang clothing. The problem is
that legal limitations on hate speech will fail if unsupported by popular cultural enforcement.
Though Hutu and Tutsi were forbidden words in Burundi until the 1980's, the prohibition had
little effect, since other euphemisms and code-words replaced them. Prohibition may even
become counter-productive, as part of an ideology of denial, which prevents people from
naming, discussing and overcoming deep cultural divisions. However, without symbols for our
classifications, they would become literally insignificant. Yellow stars became insignificant in
parts of France and Bulgaria because many Jews refused to wear them and were not turned in by
their Christian neighbors, who rejected the Nazi's classification system. In cultures that reject
negative symbolization, resistance can be a powerful preventive tactic. In Denmark, the popular
resistance to Nazi classification and symbolization was so strong that the Nazis did not even dare
to impose the yellow star, and Danish “fishermen” smuggled ninety-five percent of Danish Jews
to safety in Sweden.

Dehumanization should be opposed openly whenever it shows its ugly face. Genocidal societies
lack constitutional protection for countervailing speech, and should be treated differently than
democracies. Hate radio stations should be shut down, and hate propaganda banned. Although
restrictions on free speech are not necessary in a healthy polity, even in democracies hate speech
should be actively exposed and publicly opposed. Direct incitements to genocide should be
outlawed. Incitement to genocide is not protected speech. Hate crimes and atrocities should be
promptly punished. Impunity breeds contempt for law, and emboldens genocidists, who can
literally get away with murder.

Organizations that commit acts of genocide should be banned, and membership in them made a
crime. Freedom of association in a democratic society should not be misconstrued as protecting
membership in criminal organizations. At Nuremberg, membership in the SS was itself
prosecuted. Similarly the Interahamwe and other genocidal hate groups should be outlawed, and
their members arrested and tried for conspiracy to commit genocide. The UN should impose
arms embargoes on governments or militias that commit genocide. Because arms embargoes are
difficult to enforce, for Rwanda, the UN established an international commission to investigate
and document violations of the arms embargo. The UN may also require member states to freeze
the assets of persons who organize and finance genocidal groups.
Polarization can be fought by providing financial and technical aid to the moderate center. It
may mean security protection for moderate leaders, or assistance to human rights groups. Assets
of extremists may be seized, and visas for international travel denied to them. Coups d'état by
extremists should be immediately opposed by targeted international sanctions on their leaders.

Preparation: Identification of victims considerably speeds genocide. When ID cards identify

victims' ethnic or religious group, or when victims are forced to wear yellow stars, the killing is
made efficient. As soon as such symbolic markers are imposed, a Genocide Watch should be
declared and diplomatic pressure should demand their abolition and impose targetted sanctions
on regime leaders. When death lists are drawn up, the international community should recognize
that genocide is imminent, and mobilize for armed intervention. Those identified should be given
asylum, and assistance in fleeing their persecutors. Had the U.S. or Britain in Palestine accepted
all Jewish immigrants, millions of lives might have been saved from the Holocaust.

Extermination whether carried out by governments or by patterned mob violence, can only be
stopped by force. Armed intervention must be rapid and overwhelming. Safe areas should be
established with real military protection. An intervention force without robust rules of
engagement, such as UNAMIR in Rwanda in April, 1994 or UNPROFOR in Bosnia, is worse
than useless because it gives genocide victims false hope of security in churches or unsafe "safe
areas", delaying their organization for self-defense. In bipolar societies, separation into self-
defense zones is the best protection for both groups, particularly if international troops create a
buffer zone between them.

Experience with UN peacekeeping has shown that humanitarian intervention should be carried
out by a multilateral force authorized by the UN, but led by UN members, rather than by the UN
itself. The Military Staff Committee envisioned in Article 47 of the UN Charter has never been
organized, and the UN does not have a standing army. The strongest member states must
therefore shoulder this responsibility in conjunction with other UN members. The U.S. is now
promoting the organization of an African Crisis Response Initiative composed of African
military units coordinated and trained by the U.S., Europeans, and other powers. Regional forces
such as those of NATO, ECOWAS, or the EU, or mandated by the African Union or
Organization of American States may also effectively intervene if given strong support by major
military powers.

Denial, the final stage of genocide is best overcome by public trials and truth commissions,
followed by years of education about the facts of the genocide, particularly for the children of the
group or nation that committed the crime. The black hole of forgetting is the negative force that
results in future genocides. When Adolf Hitler was asked if his planned invasion of Poland was
a violation of international law, he scoffed, "Who ever heard of the extermination of the
Armenians?" Impunity - literally getting away with murder -- is the weakest link in the chains
that restrain genocide. In Rwanda, Hutus were never arrested and brought to trial for massacres
of Tutsis that began years before the April, 1994 genocide. In Burundi, Tutsi youth gangs have
never been tried for killing Hutus. Burundi judges are nearly all Tutsis, as are the army and
police. They seldom, if ever, convict their own.
Social order abhors a legal vacuum. When courts do not dispense justice the victims have no
recourse but revenge. In societies with histories of ethnic violence, the cycle of killing will
eventually spiral downward into the vortex of genocide. In such societies, the international
community should fill the legal vacuum by creating tribunals to prosecute and try genocide. That
has been done for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and will soon be done for Cambodia. We
finally have the International Criminal Court (ICC) that will have world-wide jurisdiction to try
genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. But the ICC still has no jurisdiction over
genocide committed in nations that contain over half of the world’s population because their
nations have not become parties to the Rome Treaty of the ICC. The Court must be supported by
effective institutions to arrest and imprison those indicted and convicted by the Court. Only such
a permanent court will provide a deterrent to those planning future genocides.

The strongest antidote to genocide is justice.

* This article was originally written in 1996 and was presented as the first Working Paper (GS
01) of the Yale Program in Genocide Studies in 1998.

1. Gregory H. Stanton is the James Farmer Professor of Human Rights, The University of Mary
Washington, Fredericksburg, Virginia; President, Genocide Watch; Chairman, The
International Campaign to End Genocide; Director, The Cambodian Genocide Project; Vice
President, International Association of Genocide Scholars.